My Weblog

Sad Love Song

Thank you to everyone who left such kind comments about my kitty.  I feel better as time goes by, but I still find myself dissolving into tears on a semi-regular basis...a slow better, I guess.

Some new dolls and busts found their way into the shop this week.  The dolls have arms, so being the vain little things they are, they have elbowed their way in front of the poor busts who can do nothing but sit there and look pretty.  Here is the deceptively lovely Violet: the voice of meadowlark, the scent of Baby's Breath perpetually wafting about her. Just don't play cards with her...she'll take you for all you're worth without even flinching.

And there is also Lulu, head of fire!

Lulu works as a governess for a cruel couple with four beastly children who are always short-sheeting her bed and putting spiders in her cold gruel. She is saving enough money to go live in a grotto in Paris, read Rimbaud and become a tortured painter.  In the meantime she wears fierce boots...

And now, elbow-less and waiting patiently, are the busts inspired by the one I made for husband a couple of months ago.  (I love that these are paperclay - my clay of choice - but can be made in a few days, whereas the dolls take ever so long...)  Betka was dropped off at a nunnery as an infant and raised in the cloister. She rebelled against the holy orders, however, when she ran off with a dark Slovakian traveller who stole her heart but gave her wisdom and new name.

And finally, sweet Beatrix.  I loved learning how to make ringlets for Thea (in my last post) and so tried more here...they might give her an air of innocence, but Beatrix is  headed for a world of trouble; she was a child prodigy and could sing every part in Madama Butterfly by age five. Recently she has started running with a bad crowd, crying into a gin-soaked hanky and listening to Bessie Smith.

You can see more pictures of all of these ladies in my shop.

Finally, I leave on this beautiful, sunny afternoon with a sad love song.  I've been out riding on my bike twice today, and have tried to enjoy the weather, but the truth is, I'm now having a glass of sherry and feeling a little blue.  I love that this song, by Scout Niblett (find this woman - she's melancholy and punky and she plays some kick-ass guitar AND drums) and Will Oldham, is so aching and lovely and yet the video is funny and quite bizarre.   

Emigrated to Another Star

It's been a long time since my last post, in part because I was away for nearly three weeks doing renovations on my aunt's house, which ended up taking all our time and leaving none for seeking out wireless connections.  I did take some pictures though, so I'll be posting those over the next little while.  But another reason for my absence has been the loss of my much-loved, very sweet and rather odd little cat.  She was only three, so it was a huge shock when she became ill shortly before our trip.  We took her to the vet and they seemed to think all she needed was stay over night and be rehydrated, but then they called us a few hours later to say she had died and they could not explain why.  We were devastated, and I had hoped to do a little tribute to her here, but can't bring myself to go through all the photos I have (I'm a bit of a psycho when it comes to cat pictures!  Every cute pose is recorded...)  While we were away we were distracted by the overwhelming task of the reno, but now that I'm home again, I feel her absence acutely and it's been hard to get motivated to do much of anything, but I'm trying to keep myself busy.  The title of this post comes from a beautiful epitaph by Helen Hunt Jackson with which I try to comfort myself: "Oh, write of me, not Died in bitter pains, but Emigrated to another star!"

Before I left I finished a commission the lovely Faye L. Booth who writes Victorian-inspired fiction.  This doll, Thea, is based on one of her characters.  This picture was taken before she was finished (hence the pin sticking out of her head) and with all the chaos before we left, I didn't manage to take any others.

Some people have asked about the dolls from my last post.  They are currently on display in the Hands Dancing show at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts.   I had hoped to mail them into Art Doll Quarterly for the winter issue, but there wasn't time with the show, so I will send them in August and they won't be in the shop until sometime in September.  Below is a picture of them in gallery (the colour was horrible, so I made it black and white!)

Not a great shot, as you can see, so here are some of the originals:

The rest of my dolls  are in the gallery gift shop until Christmas:

And here are some flowers from my father's garden. It inspired me daily to keep working on that hundred year-old house (empty for the past twenty.)  Someday we'll move to Cape Breton and have our own garden, but in the meantime I seek solace in Led Zeppelin, Ghost Bees and Black Sabbath and dream of future flowers:   white and pink roses, Valerian, Dogwood and Rhododendron.  Imagine...

The Hunstman's Daughter and her Friends

I have pictures of three new dolls that made the trip to LabCab and that I have just submitted to be  exhibited next month in a show called  Hands Dancing , at the Inverness Country Centre for the Arts.  It seems I just back town and I'm away again, as next week we are leaving for Inverness, Cape Breton, which is where my family lives.  I'm so excited to be near the ocean, breath in the woods and see my family. Oh, yes - and hopefully be in my first real art show!   I'll be taking some other dolls to put in the Arts Centre gift shop, so I won't be listing anything new in the shop until I get back in early July.  The first is Peggine, one of my favourites (something about her sad, knowing expression.)
Her dress is somewhat in the Regency style, with an eyelet apron over-top.  I hand-dyed wool roving for her hair, and was so delighted with the outcome - sort of dreadlocky but still soft and sewable.

This is the Huntsman's daughter, so named because she's holding a tiny heart which reminded me of the beginning of Snow White when that dreadful Queen demands that the Huntsman bring her Snow White's heart, but he can't bear to so brings the heart of a deer instead. (But this winsome creature would never murder a poor deer!  It must be the heart of someone who deserved it!)

A paramedic friend of mine observed that the heart is anatomically correct and I was all a-gleeful (I consulted my beloved anatomy textbook after all!)

Finally we have a full-length picture of Ivy, who made a brief appearance in my last post...she's all in lilac, all lady-like.

And finally, a few more pictures from the LabCab Festival.  I just loved watching this dancer, Djeni (in the white skirt) teaching kids Haitian dancing to Zouk music...by far the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.  She even brought matching skirts for the little girls - perfect for spinning!

The lady in the white shirt and grey pants is the most talented and lovely, Aviva, my friend, a brilliant actor and organizer of LabCab for the past three years. 

And here is the irrepressible Steve Nugget (aka. Christopher Sawchyn), who did a hi-larious skit about washed-up glam rocker getting ready in his dressing room.  It involved much audience participation and guess who got to kiss this hottie's  bad-ass skull ring?  Yes, yours truly...try not to let envy tear you up inside, ladies!

I'm off on Monday for nearly three weeks; I'll try to post while I'm away but it will depend on whether or not I can find access to wireless.  I'll be deep in the gorgeous woods, so I'll say goodbye for now. 

                                                            

Mwah!

 

Laboratory Cabaret 2008

I'm back from the LabCab Festival  and much fun was had by all!  It felt like a bit of a whirlwind trip, as LabCab takes place at the beautiful old Factory Theatre (below) in Toronto, the city in which I grew up.  It's always a bit hectic when I visit Toronto as there are so many people I want to see, and now most of my friends have kids, so there are exponentially more people to see.  It always fun, but I never feel like I have enough time to spend with everyone.  Throw a festival into the mix and it's busy busy beeness...

This was the view from my little table.  I was outside the whole time except for some brief rain.

And this was my display (cloudy.)

And sunny...your typical topsy tury spring weather.  Some of these dolls might be familiar, but the five large ones are all new, as are the cloth dolls and the four wall hangings

I'm in the midst of taking their individual photos (small tripod crisis partially averted by plumbers' glue.) I only have one close-up of one new doll (more to come soon) so here is a preview of Ivy (the one in the mauve dress):

I went for a little stroll through the theatre and found some great, old posters for different plays.  This was my favourite...I think I need to do a black & white silent film star doll very soon...

Wall of posters:

Recognize her?  Sandra Oh long before she hit it big on Grey's Anatomy:

These two lovelies are Drew and Natalie.  Drew was selling hand-cut, pop-up cards (very cool) and Natalie was selling sweet scarves and earrings made from Fender guitar picks. 

I tried not to drool on her dress form/ earring holder...perfect for doll dress-making and deeply coveted by me.

What a long day...time for a pink lady.  No, not the drink - a real pink lady!  (I had red wine instead, but isn't she gorgeous?  She was one of the performers.)

I'll be back soon with more pictures from Labcab and of the new dolls! 

Even more Heads

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, so amid all the insanity of trying to get ready for labcab, I made him a this little bust (and a kick-ass dinner, of course!)  She's made from paperclay, with a mohair wig and eyes I made myself.  She's a little on the spooky side, but I like spooky and so does my sweetheart (when I asked if she was too creepy and did he want something else, he said ' well, she is creepy but I love her.' One of the many reasons I married him.)

She's sort of an albino-geisha lady, or some such strange hybrid.  I'm thinking of putting some similar busts in the shop eventually, as sculpting/ painting the faces and making the wigs are my favourite parts of doll-making.  I didn't quite have time to finish her, so that pin you see is just a temporary measure to secure her lace collar. 

I've also been working on some drawings, as I've long wanted to put some prints in the shop, but everything I've tried in the past just didn't suit it, so I scrapped them.  I think I'm finally moving towards something I'm happy with, although this is just a prototype...she still needs a lot of work (my husband says her forehead is too high, which was intentional, but maybe I went too far?)  Also, those weird little black stems on her head were antlers, but the image was too big for my scanner...all things that will be fixed...

During my travels around town last week I stumbled upon this charming little balcony:

Look up, look waaay up (that's a reference to the Friendly Giant, a Canadian kids' tv show, so it just occurred to me it probably won't mean much to most of you!)  But look waaaay up and you'll see why I took the photo:

Isn't she sweet?  Have a lovely rest-of-your-week, everyone! 

Valley of the Doll Heads

Pardon the cheap pop-cultural wink, but after a year of writing a blog primarily about dolls, I couldn't resist!  And I tried to remain true to reference by eschewing the neutral space of the lightbox for a valley-esque environment for my most recent work-in-progress.  Here they are in my backyard, lurking among the shoots of what will soon be one of my favourite flowers,  Day Lilies:

I confess, I felt rather silly arranging doll heads in the flower beds and could only imagine what the neighbours would think about the crazy new lady playing with tiny body parts.

I've been working with paperclay (an air-dry clay) for the past few days and I love love love it.  I can achieve to much more detail and control than with polymer clay, but it it very time consuming as must be built up in layers, left to dry,  and then sanded between layers. Polymer clay can be sculpted in one shot, then baked.  Sigh.  Polymer is instant gratification but paperclay is a love affair.

I think this one is my favourite...she looks pensive, a bit tortured even (but can one really be only a bit tortured?)  I'm almost finished this much cheerier little dear, but am waiting for a shipment of hair before she can be completed. (I was at a dinner party once and casually mentioned going to the post office to pick up eyes, then had a lot of explaining to do.)

I altered my cloth doll pattern to give them longer legs, because I thought they were looking a little stumpy.  I also tried a bit of silk ribbon embroidery on her skirt:

I've recently discovered the black & white setting on my camera (oh, the torment of being a luddite!) so I've been experimenting with trying to take artsy fartsy photos.  This is a beautiful statue of Copernicus outside of the Montreal planetarium that I happened upon one day:

I love how the elements have stained his face...he looks more than a bit tortured...

 

And here is me trying to be sneaky and get a picture of this guy's excellent mohawk (in the right-hand bottom corner) by pretending to take a picture of the fountain.  He caught on to me pretty quickly but was very friendly, waved, then did a little jig...

Colour Me Sprung

When I was little, every spring my Dad would recite the same poem: 

Spring has sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is

I know he didn't make it up, but I'm not sure where it comes from.  And I also know I've already sung the praises of spring, but when you live in a city in which it's truly brutal winter seven months a year, spring is really, really significant.  By summer, I guarantee I'll be complaining about the heat, but right now I'm profoundly grateful for both the sunshine and the rain, and the gorgeously comfortable temperatures.  And the colour, oh the colour!  On that note, here is a little gal I've just made, unnamed as of yet:

Her hair is rather messy and needs some adjusting, but you get the idea.  I'm taking a little break from clay and making some cloth dolls. 

I've got a bunch of parts just waiting to be pieced together so that they need no longer be creepy disembodied doll parts.

Everything I make from this point on until the end of May is intended for the LabCab festival that takes place in Toronto May 31st and June 1st.  I'll be there with my little booth as well as a section of the art display, so if you're in the area, come on by!  There will be theater and music and visual art, and it has all been organized by my dear friend and the most talented actor, Aviva, so it is bound to be most excellent.

Thanks to the beautiful weather I've been tootling around the city on my bike.  I've recently become obsessed with Montreal rooftops because no matter how long I live here I can't get over how lovely they are... so much beautiful detail and colour.  Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a cross between a tale from Ye Olde Days of Yore and an Edward Gorey illustration.  Here are a few of my favourites:

Can you believe it?  A castle! And some turrets...

And balconies for all the star-crossed lovers...

More happiness everyone, and more spring!

Poltroons, Beware!

... Nora Barnacle is here to make you walk the plank at the Swashbuckler's Soiree!! This event was the brainchild of the lovely Donna O'Brien (you can find her blog by clicking the link above...)

I joined the Soiree quite late, but here is my offering, Nora Barnacle.  She is named after James Joyce's wife, who was not -as far as I know- a pirate but with a name like that she should have been! 

Rumour has it that Nora purchases her head scarves at the same high-seas establishment as Jack Sparrow...

But the embellishments on her skirt are pure Nora...she goes diving for starfish, snails and sand dollars and of course sews all her own clothes!

And of course no self-respecting pirate would go out without a de-rigeur pair of striped stockings!  But the seas are a dangerous place for even the fiercest pirates, so Noraa carries a wee sword (which she was unable to photograph clearly - heads at the Canon camera factory will roll! Into the ocean!)

Argh, mateys!  I'm running out of pirate talk, so I'm going to try to talk Nora into holstering that bad boy long enough to check all you other swashbucklers...

Ode to my Blessed Dollybox

I've read about the importance of taking good photos so often, but try as I might I was never able to get the  lighting right with my dolls.  There were always shadows and the lighting seemed cold.  So I finally made a lightbox (you can find the tutorial I used here) and figured out how to use the white balance on my camera (my dad got it for me in Japan, oh maybe six years ago?)  Let's just say I'm a bit of a techno-phobe and every little step I take I have to drag myself kicking and screaming...But I'm soooo happy I did because my most recent photos are so much better, my dolls' vanity has finally been satisfied and they no longer call out my name in accusing tones at night, demanding I do them justice. So forgive me if I go a little overboard with the pictures in this post...

This is Imogen.  She has one of the quasi-historical I mentioned in my last post: Victorian avec bustle!  But here is my question to you all, an informal poll if you will; I made her a little headband with antlers, but I wonder if it makes her look too busy, as her hair is already quite large.  It would be removable, but maybe it's overkill?

Here she is in her fancy-pants dress:

And from the side, because her bustle must be viewed in all its bum-you-could-balance-a-teacup-on glory:

And from the back because I'm rawther pleased with her train (ever read Eloise? One of my faves...  Nanny is always rawther this and rawther that):

Hmm - not sure if you can really see it that pic, but her underskirt does have a train...

Here is her bustle closeup:

And her pantaloons:

Imogen will go in the shop on Thursday. 

I also took these pictures of Delphine (who is in the shop now.)

And these ones of Cosette, who's going in the shop momentarily...

(Cosette has my first handmade pair of eyes!)

Whew!  I'm all lightboxed out for now.  I'd love to know what you think about Imogen...antlers oui ou non?

Dolls, Bikes, Corsets, oh my!

As promised, a few photos of two dolls I just finished (with more to come very soon!)  These are not their 'official' pictures because I'm going to make a lightbox tonight to try to get better photos for my Etsy shop (oh-so-barren at the moment.)  I've always struggled with lighting, and am hoping a lightbox will give me more control.

They look French to me. Delphine?  Cosette?  Haven't decided yet...

Well, it's another beautiful day here in Point St. Charles - how about a trip to the surprisingly well-stocked local library? (I feel a bit like creepy Mr. Rogers here with the virtual neighbourhood tour, but will push through my self-consciousness.) Let's go out the front door this time...

These are the houses across the street.   I love the colour and the little gabled  roofs over the windows.  The rest of the street looks like this:

If you look to your left, you'll notice some more of the Point's unusual graffiti, certainly part of its charm...

'Velo' is French slang for bike, hence the 'velorution'.  According the city stats, Montreal has the most extensive bike paths of any city in North America.  There is one right outside our door that leads to the Lachine canal, a beautiful canal that runs through the entire city and has bike paths long its entire length.  I love biking in Montreal and not having to worry that I'm going to get flattened by some aggro driver (and there are certainly plenty of those here, too.)

This lady drinks her soup just up the street - isn't she lovely?  But we can't stop long! We have to get to...

This is where I recently took out the most stunning book on Kyoto's fashion collection (aptly titled Fashion.)  The mannequins are all white with white ribbons for hair - tres belle!  Here are few photos from the book:

I'm working on some larger dolls in paperclay and plan to use this book as a reference for quasi-authentic historical costumes (that is, the ones in the book are thoroughly authentic, but mine will be quasi as I lik e to combine rough edges with all the bows and frills to temper the froufiness factor of period costume.)Thanks for the walk everyone.  Happy Spring!